DETROIT — While it may have seemed like it at the time, Justin Verlander knew that his MVP and Cy Young season wasn’t perfect.

There was still room for improvement.

He acknowledged as much at the end of the season, in the process of accepting a bushel full of awards.

Asked how he might improve upon what was statistically one of the most dominant pitching performances in more than a decade, Verlander didn’t hesitate, pointing at one thing, and one thing only.

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April.

“I found out a lot of things in 2008, found out a lot of things that didn’t work for me. Had a bad year, had a bad spring — everything you could picture. So basically nix all that, restart my program. And I think since then, I’ve found a lot of things that do work for me,” Verlander said at the time.

How so? Try a changed focus in the spring.

“Looking at my stats in the past, I realized that Aprils for me were not only not very good, they were pretty bad. So that was a glaring stat for me that jumped out, needed improvement.I tried to fast-track my entire season by a month. I was very results-oriented in spring training, took every bullpen very seriously. I wasn’t just worried about how my arm felt,” he said.

“My April still wasn’t great, but it was a lot better. So I think that kind of helped me along.”

Same answer when he was asked that season about how — after he fought tooth and nail to win 24 games — someone would ever match Denny McLain’s 30-win season, stuck in the era of the five-man rotation, as he is.

April.

“I get a couple more wins in my first few starts ...” he said, leaving it hanging, leaving you to understand that just maybe he might think it possible, if he didn’t have that dastardly April stumbling block.

Maybe ... just maybe ... he doesn’t anymore.

In 2012, Verlander posted his first April winning record since his rookie season, and held batters to a mind-numbingly anemic .179 batting average, and a microscopic WHIP (walk plus hits per innings pitched ratio) of 0.857. His ERA was 2.41, a third of a run lower than he’d EVER posted in the season’s first month.

Getting better, for sure.

This year? Try his highest win total (three) since his rookie year, a winning record again, and an ERA (1.83) almost a full run lower than any he’d posted before 2012.

His best start ever? Maybe. Is the April bugaboo finally behind him?

After his last start, Verlander answered that question with a question: “That was my last start in April, right?”

Yes, Justin.

When you pitch on April 30, you’re probably not going to pitch again until May. Your next start is Sunday, May 5, against Houston. You’re not going to jinx anything.

“Yeah, I hope (it’s in the past),” he answered after getting affirmation. “Never say yeah, but I feel like the last few years, it’s gotten better and better, and obviously I think I proved it this year. It’s funny, everybody’s talking about my velocity being down, but yet I threw the best I have in April, so ... Like I said, I attribute a lot of that to ’08. My velocity was down a little bit, and learning the right way to go about things, and not freaking out about it. Just playing the game of baseball, pitching like I can pitch, regardless if it’s 100 or 97.”

If that’s the first you’re hearing of Verlander’s relative lack of velocity early, you might not have been paying close enough attention.

Depending on the source of the questions, the tenor ranked somewhere on the spectrum between “You can’t criticize the results, so what about HOW he’s getting them,” to worries that the Tigers might end up with buyer’s remorse after signing their ace to a long-term extension less than a month ago. To others it was more of a “Hmm, that’s weird” anomaly.

But facts are facts: Verlander was NOT throwing as hard this April as he has in the past. As Yahoo columnist Jeff Passan noted when discussing the subject, Verlander’s dip of 1.9 mph off his average fastball speed through his first four starts was among three largest decreases in all of baseball.

Verlander’s manager dismissed the speculation pretty simply.

“Well, I think it’s been cold, and I think he knows what he’s doing,” the veteran manager said, “and I think he’s got plenty of velocity.”

It has gotten better, too.

Verlander’s average four-seamer was around 94 mph in his last start (2 mph higher than the data after the first four starts), and he topped out at 97.

“It’s gotten better and better each start. Hasn’t gotten worse. I know it’s a little down, but like I said, I’m confident it will get there. I had a few — I mean, I don’t even want to say mechanical adjustments — I adjusted a little bit today, for different reasons. I feel like today it was the best it’s been, and hopefully it just gets better,” Verlander said.

“I threw a lot of innings last year, and was basically three weeks behind coming into spring training this year — on purpose. But I think it seems like, for the most part, our entire team has started slowly getting better, velocity-wise.”

It’s a contrast to the lesson that he learned from the disastrous 2008 campaign about getting himself ready. But it fits in exactly with the situation he found himself in that season, when the velocity wasn’t necessarily there to start.

To say that 2008 was a watershed season for Verlander might be underselling it.

It’s the only of his eight full seasons, where he ended up with a losing record (11-17), tied for the most losses in the big leagues. His ERA (4.84) was as high as it’s ever been, as he gave up 20 more runs than in any other season, and struck out as few as he had since he was a raw rookie.

And it all started right at the beginning, when the velocity wasn’t quite what he was used to.

“I learned a valuable lesson in 2008, and that’s not going about trying to create velocity the wrong way. Just worry about establishing your pitches, making your pitches, getting outs. You start TRYING to throw hard, and that creates a lot of bad habits that hard to fix.

“I’m just trying to go out there and pitch, and I feel like every time, it’s gotten a little bit better. ...

“I mean, I’ve hit 96, 97. I think it’ll get there. Like I said, I’m not trying to push it.”

So that means he’s not the same young buck who likes to turn around and look at the radar gun every once in a while, just to see triple digits? He doesn’t like to put on a show?

“No, I like to put on a show,” he corrected with a tight grin. “But to not try to force it. This is a long season. I threw a lot of innings last year, as did a lot of the guys on this team. Just working at things the right way.”

It is a long season.

Just like learning to pace himself in each game was a huge step forward in Verlander’s maturation process, so is learning to pace himself every season.

Start well and build on it.

Get stronger as he goes.

Unless something is completely off kilter, health-wise, the velocity will come back.

Arm issues wouldn’t be all that surprising or out of the question, considering we’re talking about someone who’s thrown more pitches than any other human over the last handful of years.

The radar gun readings are what they are: An accurate picture of how FAST Verlander is throwing.

Not necessarily how WELL he’s throwing.

Hey, I get the “Verlander’s not the same” arguments, to an extent.

I mean, he only flirted with a no-hitter once last year — the slacker.

And it was probably unfair to expect that he’d put up the same video game numbers in 2012 that he posted in 2011.

I think another thing lends itself to the perception that he’s “come down to Earth,” though.

The rest of the staff around him doesn’t seem all that far behind anymore.

Remember that ridiculous stat where Verlander was 16-3 after a Tigers loss in 2011? Seemed like he was head and shoulders above the inconsistent starting cast of Brad Penny, Max Scherzer and Rick Porcello in those days. And Doug Fister came in late, at the trade deadline.

Now?

While Porcello is still a bit enigmatic, Fister — when healthy — has become a quiet lynchpin of the staff. Last year’s trade acquisition Anibal Sanchez justified the Tigers’ big offseason investment in him by striking out a franchise record 17 two starts ago.

On top of that, Scherzer’s come into his own enough that he can give Verlander grief. After all, Scherzer came darned close to unseating his teammate as the reigning MLB strikeout champ.

“We were joking after the game that Anibal is No. 1, I’m No. 2 and Ver (Verlander) is just average,” Scherzer joked after Sanchez’s historic night.

Verlander shot back: “That’s OK, I’ve got a few other things.”

The very friendly competition between the members of the starting corps is a good thing.

A VERY good thing.

“Yeah, I mean, I think you saw Scherzer taking a jab at me the other day. I took a little jab back at him. It’s fun,” Verlander said. “When you get four, five guys rolling as a starting staff, there’s going to be competition, guys are going to go back and forth at each other. It’s all in fun. We’re all family here, especially our starting staff. We feed off of each other. To get that internal competition I think is a fantastic thing.”

Like Verlander’s “missing” velocity in April, the perception of competition can be misleading, if misread.

It doesn’t mean that Verlander’s not good anymore, if he’s not blowing 100-mph gas, throwing harder than anybody — and everybody — else.

Just look at the numbers.

Even without it, he’s just as good as — or better than — everyone else. He just appears more human than superhuman.

And if that velocity comes back as it starts to warm up ... ?

Matthew B. Mowery covers the Tigers for Digital First Media. Read his “Out of Left Field” blog at opoutofleftfield.blogspot.com.